5 ms·

This is beautiful. For me, the old-school forums are a pinnacle of UX that Discourse fails to match. That UI + the real-time facilities of Lemmy is a match made

This is beautiful. For me, the old-school forums are a pinnacle of UX that Discourse fails to match. That UI + the real-time facilities of Lemmy is a match made in heaven. Now, if only someone implemented the old IPB theme! Pic: https://images.sftcdn.net/images/t_app-cover-m,f_auto/p/3753a0ce-9a65-11e6-b7cf-00163ed833e7/1651023520/invision-power-board-screenshot.jpg https://images.sftcdn.net/images/t_app-cover-m,f_auto/p/3753...

photoGrant 4y ago
IPB, for me, was peak BB software. Back in the WinBeta days
- ValentineC 4y ago
  I know they had to earn money, but it's a shame how they screwed licence holders over and over trying to encourage people to move over to monthly payments.
  - nunobrito 4y ago
    Yeah.. I'm one of those who bought the expensive perpetual license with the promise of access to new versions just to discover a few years later that it wasn't "perpetual".
- warmwaffles 4y ago
  I really missed newground's style of BB.
celestialcheese 4y ago
Man, so much time spent in that UI reading and talking with people. Good memories.
- kuramitropolis 4y ago
  Yes! Those forums really felt like places. Social media nowadays just feels like, well, TV.
  - dendrite9 4y ago
    I post regularly on a vbulletin forum and have for the last 15 years. Every so often someone who used to be active will drop by and it drags other old lurkers out. One of the better analogies is that it feels like neighborhood bar, there are regulars, new loud people, new people who get a feel for the space, people who come in every now and again. And then occasionally it feels like thanksgiving where a bunch of people are back in town and show up all together.
    - all2 4y ago
      This makes me want to get back into scifi-meshes.org. Man, I used to be on there daily for years. Blender was an absolute God-send in my childhood, and having a place to talk with others that were doing the same thing made it so much more... I don't know. Impactful.
  - celestialcheese 4y ago
    Still some holdouts - mainly in niche automotive forums. If you work on old cars or are an enthusiast, these are still very active places.
mostlysimilar 4y ago
Some of my best memories of the old internet. We were getting so much right in this era of web software interfaces.
- kuramitropolis 4y ago
  Yes, because nobody was trying to manipulate us through them. It was just a communication service enabling diverse people to talk to each other. It was also, well, optional. None of that algoboosted dopamine-head datamining freakshow that's leaking into the world in a way that the AI alarmists seem to be ignoring entirely.
  - nonethewiser 4y ago
    Very true but ironically that's what hooks so many people.
    - kuramitropolis 4y ago
      Nothing ironic - it's all working as intended. What got the initial critical mass of people hooked, is that they were already familiar with the idea of an online conversation space, and liked expressing themselves through that medium. So the idea of a unified global forum was alluring, and the ego-boost of personal bubbles, as well as the fact that the admins were staying out of sight, no doubt sealed the deal. And then, well, you know what they say about boiling a frog. By the point the experience degraded beyond pointless, there was already enough of a data corpus to build the dopamine loops, and a critical mass of users - so that everybody would be "there" because everybody else would be "there". Then, it started "replacing reality" by privatizing the means of social consensus. Any manipulative person will tell you (or won't) that normal human emotions are, in the end, quite predictable. If there's truth to "AI risk", who's to say it won't get to us through our emotions, like drugs do? Perfect crime against humanity, in plain sight. Not exaggerating in the slightest. Thankfully there's enough "weirdos" to remember what the old Internet was all about, so an alternative is at least technically possible.
_smmt 4y ago
Whole way I got started in webdev was skinning IPB for various gaming forums because it had such good UIUX vs vBulletin and SMC/phpBB etc. It was awesome. Blew my mind when someone tried to pay me. Thank you IPB.
- dutchbrit 4y ago
  Haha same here, started skinning on 1.3. The good old Invisionize days!
- RainaRelanah 4y ago
  PunBB (now: FluxBB) for me. Seems like Connor broke DNS for the site. 15 year old me was probably a nightmare for them to deal with, but it was my first involvement in OSS, and I'm still proud to have hosted two of the largest install bases.
  - onedr0p 4y ago
    That's a name I haven't heard in a long time! PunBB was the cleanest looking forum software I remember hacking at. I integrated into a bittorrent tracker I ran long ago.
- gardenhedge 4y ago
  For me it was adding extensions (like arcades, shops, etc) to phpBB boards. I used to follow tutorials saying replace this line with this line and add these lines here. Shoutout to whoever made those extensions and tutorials!
- Eumenes 4y ago
  There are still many active forums on the web with that UI (not sure if IPB). Alot of hobbies (cars, firearms, hunting, ham radio, hiking, geocaching, etc) still have communities using these forums!
  - kuramitropolis 4y ago
    Can you link me to some? I only seem to be able to find the newer versions.
nonethewiser 4y ago
Is there any names for that sort of ui? I'm trying to characterize it myself and cant come up with more than "smaller text" and something akin to graphics that remind me of panneling/trim found in cars. Maybe less whitespace with text closer together too.
- zo1 4y ago
  Just the fact that it has borders and minimal whitespace is enough to distinguish it from the hyper-optimized UX dumpster fire we have most everywhere else on the net.
- kuramitropolis 4y ago
  Information-dense. Old-school Web 2.0. Human sensory bandwidth-respecting.

photoGrant 4y ago

IPB, for me, was peak BB software. Back in the WinBeta days

ValentineC 4y ago
I know they had to earn money, but it's a shame how they screwed licence holders over and over trying to encourage people to move over to monthly payments.
- nunobrito 4y ago
  Yeah.. I'm one of those who bought the expensive perpetual license with the promise of access to new versions just to discover a few years later that it wasn't "perpetual".
warmwaffles 4y ago
I really missed newground's style of BB.

celestialcheese 4y ago

Man, so much time spent in that UI reading and talking with people. Good memories.

kuramitropolis 4y ago
Yes! Those forums really felt like places. Social media nowadays just feels like, well, TV.
- dendrite9 4y ago
  I post regularly on a vbulletin forum and have for the last 15 years. Every so often someone who used to be active will drop by and it drags other old lurkers out. One of the better analogies is that it feels like neighborhood bar, there are regulars, new loud people, new people who get a feel for the space, people who come in every now and again. And then occasionally it feels like thanksgiving where a bunch of people are back in town and show up all together.
  - all2 4y ago
    This makes me want to get back into scifi-meshes.org. Man, I used to be on there daily for years. Blender was an absolute God-send in my childhood, and having a place to talk with others that were doing the same thing made it so much more... I don't know. Impactful.
- celestialcheese 4y ago
  Still some holdouts - mainly in niche automotive forums. If you work on old cars or are an enthusiast, these are still very active places.

mostlysimilar 4y ago

Some of my best memories of the old internet. We were getting so much right in this era of web software interfaces.

kuramitropolis 4y ago
Yes, because nobody was trying to manipulate us through them. It was just a communication service enabling diverse people to talk to each other. It was also, well, optional. None of that algoboosted dopamine-head datamining freakshow that's leaking into the world in a way that the AI alarmists seem to be ignoring entirely.
- nonethewiser 4y ago
  Very true but ironically that's what hooks so many people.
  - kuramitropolis 4y ago
    Nothing ironic - it's all working as intended. What got the initial critical mass of people hooked, is that they were already familiar with the idea of an online conversation space, and liked expressing themselves through that medium. So the idea of a unified global forum was alluring, and the ego-boost of personal bubbles, as well as the fact that the admins were staying out of sight, no doubt sealed the deal. And then, well, you know what they say about boiling a frog. By the point the experience degraded beyond pointless, there was already enough of a data corpus to build the dopamine loops, and a critical mass of users - so that everybody would be "there" because everybody else would be "there". Then, it started "replacing reality" by privatizing the means of social consensus. Any manipulative person will tell you (or won't) that normal human emotions are, in the end, quite predictable. If there's truth to "AI risk", who's to say it won't get to us through our emotions, like drugs do? Perfect crime against humanity, in plain sight. Not exaggerating in the slightest. Thankfully there's enough "weirdos" to remember what the old Internet was all about, so an alternative is at least technically possible.

_smmt 4y ago

Whole way I got started in webdev was skinning IPB for various gaming forums because it had such good UIUX vs vBulletin and SMC/phpBB etc. It was awesome. Blew my mind when someone tried to pay me. Thank you IPB.

dutchbrit 4y ago
Haha same here, started skinning on 1.3. The good old Invisionize days!
RainaRelanah 4y ago
PunBB (now: FluxBB) for me. Seems like Connor broke DNS for the site. 15 year old me was probably a nightmare for them to deal with, but it was my first involvement in OSS, and I'm still proud to have hosted two of the largest install bases.
- onedr0p 4y ago
  That's a name I haven't heard in a long time! PunBB was the cleanest looking forum software I remember hacking at. I integrated into a bittorrent tracker I ran long ago.
gardenhedge 4y ago
For me it was adding extensions (like arcades, shops, etc) to phpBB boards. I used to follow tutorials saying replace this line with this line and add these lines here. Shoutout to whoever made those extensions and tutorials!
Eumenes 4y ago
There are still many active forums on the web with that UI (not sure if IPB). Alot of hobbies (cars, firearms, hunting, ham radio, hiking, geocaching, etc) still have communities using these forums!
- kuramitropolis 4y ago
  Can you link me to some? I only seem to be able to find the newer versions.

nonethewiser 4y ago

Is there any names for that sort of ui? I'm trying to characterize it myself and cant come up with more than "smaller text" and something akin to graphics that remind me of panneling/trim found in cars. Maybe less whitespace with text closer together too.

zo1 4y ago
Just the fact that it has borders and minimal whitespace is enough to distinguish it from the hyper-optimized UX dumpster fire we have most everywhere else on the net.
kuramitropolis 4y ago
Information-dense. Old-school Web 2.0. Human sensory bandwidth-respecting.